Why Savile's colleagues colluded in his crimes

Exposed: Women in their 50s have now come forward to say what Savile did when they were just 14 and 15

Just looking at pictures of Jimmy Savile’s lips, pulled back to reveal his nicotine-stained, misshapen teeth clamped round the ubiquitous cigar, is unpleasant enough. The thought of him sticking his tongue into a young girl’s mouth is repellent.

Yet according to an ever-growing number of women, the man who boasted he was a friend of prime ministers and a confidant of royalty did this — and far worse — again and again and again.

Now his activities have finally been exposed — by women now in their 50s but still traumatised by what he did to them when they were 14 and 15 — are his former colleagues surprised? Apparently not.

Indeed, from the accounts of the past few days — spawned by tonight’s ITV documentary — it would appear that some who worked with him, from drivers to producers, directors and beyond, knew, or suspected, that Savile sexually assaulted and raped young girls. But because he was such a powerful figure, they kept it quiet.

As his fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini says: ‘Jimmy Savile had an imperial personality in showbusiness. You just didn’t mess with Jim — you let him have his turf.’

How utterly despicable.

Even more shameful was the decision made by the BBC last year — after Savile’s death — to pull a Newsnight investigation exposing his behaviour. The official reason was that although the DJ had been investigated by the police, he’d never been charged, so they had no corroborating evidence.The real reason, I suspect, had nothing to do with responsible journalism and everything to do with a desire to protect reputations. After all, Sir Jimmy Savile was not only once one of the BBC’s biggest stars but had been lionised by the Corporation as a tireless fundraiser.

It seems incredible that so many people could have effectively colluded in shielding a child abuser, who had access not only to star-struck youngsters who came to watch his Top Of The Pops and Jim’ll Fix It recordings but also to the dorms of a school for troubled girls.

Let’s not mince words: turning a blind eye to another person’s crimes is collusion — and it’s the reason so many child abusers escape justice. Like Savile, such predators are often admired within their communities for the charity work they do with children. Far from fitting the traditional image of a dirty old man in a raincoat, they are frequently ‘fun’ characters, popular with children and adults alike.

Even if children overcome their shame to tell an adult what’s going on, they tend not to be believed. Why? Because it’s easier to believe that a child is lying than it is to confront a popular, respected teacher, scout master or TV star.

Too often, we worry more about hurting the feelings of the abuser than we do about the child.

Over the course of 30 years or more, the few BBC employees who raised the alarm were ignored or threatened with the sack. It’s been left instead to ITV to bring this dirty secret out into the open.

It is too late for Savile’s victims to achieve closure by confronting the monster who abused them when they were young. Other celebrity paedophiles, allegedly uncovered during the cancelled Newsnight investigation, must not be accorded the same protection.

No doubt there will be more obfuscation and denials. But if the BBC does not treat this seriously, it will have little of its precious reputation left to save.

A new book, The End Of Men, claims women are now outperforming males in so many areas — at school, university and in some professions — that they will soon be redundant.

Calm down, dears! Yes, we’re doing better than you at school. Yes, there are more women (58 per cent) than men at British universities. And it is true that 60 per cent of new solicitors are women, as are 56 per cent of new doctors. Nevertheless, the end of men is far from nigh.

To understand why, you have only to listen to the story of Anji Hunter, who was once Tony Blair’s most powerful member of staff. Unlike many of the men who served him — Alastair Campbell, Jonathan Powell and Peter Mandelson, to name but a few — she has not cashed in by writing her memoirs. To read their accounts, however, you would think she did little more than make the tea.The fact she was Blair’s oldest friend didn’t stop him treating her unfairly: ‘I remember going into Downing Street on day one and learning I was earning half as much as Alastair and Jonathan,’ she has revealed ruefully. ‘The idea of negotiating your salary hadn’t occurred to me.’

Like so many women, she simply got on with her job while her male colleagues shamelessly took the credit. This is the tale of women everywhere — and why the end of men is a most unlikely prospect.

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Jackie Collins, novelist sister of Joan,
says people who buy into the Hollywood lifestyle are simply wasting
their time and money: ‘People here are so obsessed. They go to Pilates,
the gym, the dermatologist, the nutritionist. They have facials and two
manicures a week.’ Who can she be thinking of?

My guess is that winning Strictly last year rather went to the head of Aliona Vilani, the professional dancer who partnered Harry Judd. Well, she’s had her comeuppance. First she was paired with Johnny Ball, who, despite being in the ‘jolly old duffer’ slot, has neither John Sergeant’s comic genius nor Ann Widdecombe’s gift for panto. Then, in training, Johnny broke her ankle. Now she’s been replaced with the stunning Iveta Lukosiute, world champion in ten styles of ballroom. A very literal case of pride coming before a fall.

I entirely agree with the judge who decided it was wrong to jail a mother who’d slapped her sons three times in seven years. Sending her to prison was an over-reaction.

However, while smacking children may occasionally be understandable, it is neither desirable nor forgivable. I did it once myself, and have felt ashamed ever since. It’s simply wrong to hit someone smaller and more vulnerable than you: it teaches that violence is acceptable — and proves that you are out of control.

Despite receiving a reported £6.5 million divorce settlement after her husband Ronnie Wood left her for a waitress, his ex-wife Jo is putting their memorabilia up for auction in Beverly Hills. She says she’s fed up paying £10,000 a year to keep it in storage.

Items include a tarnished soda siphon and a hideous 17th-century oil painting that was damaged when Ronnie left it in the sauna by accident.

I wouldn’t look twice at some of this stuff, even in a car boot sale. Why has she bothered keeping it all?

Are the rich really that different from the rest of us? Or just meaner?

In his new autobiography, David
Walliams says Matt Lucas (far right with Walliams), his partner in
Little Britain, was always more talented than him but also lazier,
preferring not to start work until 3pm and quickly running out of
energy.

While Lucas
was happy for a rehearsal to be little more than a read-through of the
script, Walliams rehearsed again and again, obsessing over every
detail.

This is the
reason why, despite having suffered from debilitating depression, it’s
Walliams who’s riding high, feted not only for his comedy, children’s
books and charity swims but his painfully honest memoir, too. Of course,
you need talent to succeed. But unless you’re also prepared to work
ferociously hard, it’s unlikely to be enough.

Work ethic: Although Walliams claims that Lucas was more talented than him, he himself was obsessed with rehearsing

No doubt Hong Kong billionaire Cecil Chao, who’s offering a £40 million reward to any man who can turn his gay daughter Gigi straight, has convinced himself that he only wants the best for her. He’s sadly not the first father to react with fear and sadness to the news that their child is gay. What helps parents come to terms with it in the end isn’t money, but something still more powerful: love.

‘We’ve loved every minute of it, but that’s it — we’re keeping our clothes on from now on,’ say the original Calendar Girls. Thank God. I think we’ve had enough strategically placed Belgian buns to last us several millennia.

David Owen, who was a doctor specialising in neurology and psychiatry before he went into politics, says that before the invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair was showing clear signs of ‘hubris syndrome’ — a pathological obsession with his own self-importance and moral righteousness.

And now Kofi Annan, who was Secretary General of the United Nations for ten years, says Blair could have stopped the Iraq war and may have gone along with it only because he didn’t want to upset George Bush.

Both men’s views sound entirely plausible to me. But how tragic that they’ve waited until now, when so many British soldiers and innocent Iraqis have died, to make their views public.